February 19, 2021
Automotive Technology激光雷达101–固态和机械激光雷达
2020 has been an exciting year for LiDAR manufacturers. Five LiDAR companies (Velodyne Inc, Luminar Technologies Inc, Innoviz Technologies Ltd, Aeva Inc, and Ouster Inc) made announcements or went public through SPAC mergers. 2021 promises to get more interesting with LiDARs used in the sensor stack for ADAS features in production cars. Namely, Xpeng’s partnership with Livox for 2021 vehicle launches and Toyota’s 2021 Lexus LS500 with 4 LiDARs (1 Long Range Front, 2 Short Range Side and 1 Short Range Rear). This shift in the trend is due to the reduction in the price of LiDARs, and the market needs to achieve superior ADAS feature set.
LiDAR市场部分有50多家公司，以适应不同的用例，尽管它们都有相似的功能目标，但固有技术却不同。这种变化来自不同的波长、激光类型、探测器类型、扫描方式和激光雷达类型。过去几年，TechInsights Inc.在半导体层面分析了激光雷达。本文比较了激光激光波长为905nm的固体激光雷达和机械激光雷达。
Solid-State LiDAR
A typical solid-state LiDAR has the processor controlling the optomechanical device (to achieve vertical and horizontal Field of View) through a MOSFET. The pulsed laser is transmitted (via laser diode) through a MOSFET and Power FET. The reflected laser beam from the object is received via a photodiode and amplified before being fed back to the processor. Manufacturers differ from one another on processor/SoC, optomechanical solution, number and type of laser diode, number and type of photodiode. The functional requirement (Range, FoV, Resolution, Power etc.) of the LiDAR plays a significant role in this decision making.
Below are some of the imagery examples of processor, optomechanical device, laser diode, and photodiode fromLivox和塞普顿.
Processor
Livox Horizon处理器
塞普顿Vista P60 Processor
Opto-Mechanical System
Livox Horizon Opto-Mechanical Unit
Cepton Vista P60光电装置
激光二极管
Livox Horizon Laser Diode
Cepton Vista P60激光二极管
Photodiode
Livox Horizo n Photodiode.
Cepton Vista P60光电二极管
Mechanical LiDAR
A mechanical LiDAR like solid-state LiDAR has the processor (usually an FPGA) that controls the motor (allows it to achieve 360-degree horizontal Field of View) rpm while transmitting pulsed laser through MOSFET and Power FET. The reflected laser beam from the object, like in solid-state LiDAR, is received via a photodiode and amplified before being fed back to the processor. However, a significant difference is that the laser diodes and photodiodes are always stacked one over the other in mechanical LiDARs to achieve a 360 deg horizontal FoV. This makes the optimized LiDAR design cylindrical, limiting the usage to the roof of a vehicle.
Below are some of the imagery examples of processor, motor, laser diode and photodiode fromRobosense和Velodyne.
Processor
Robosense RS-16 Processor
Velodyne Puck Processor
Motor
Robosense RS-16 Motor
Velodyne Puck Motor
激光二极管
Robosense RS-16 Laser Diode
Velodyne Puck Laser Diode
Photodiode
Robosense RS-16光电二极管
Velodene Puck Photodiode.
For LiDAR reports with details such as system block diagram, annotated IC images, X-ray and die photos of boards, ICs, laser diodes and photodiodes, costed BOM, please reach out to TechInsights Inc.
